Stay off the Triumph

[gnocchi_mommy]

Lucky? Are you serious? Maybe they are, but not in the absurd way you've described.

 

THEIR SHIP CAUGHT ON FIRE!

 

Have you any idea how easily something like that can become a major disaster? They tell you how dangerous fire is aboard a ship during their own muster drills. Apparently we have more to fear from shoddy maintenance than from errant cigarettes.

 

Thankfully the fire suppression system wasn't as faulty as the engines! This is the second such fire in less than three years. How many other cruise lines have had two engine room fires in that period of time? I can't think of any. Something is very wrong with CCL's maintenance program. All the cost cutting in the passenger areas is probably even worse down below.

 

I swear, if the bloody ship would have sank some folks around here would be posting about how much they've always wanted to ride in a lifeboat!

 

I completely agree with your outrage at that cavalier attitude!!! And as a veteran of the USCG, the wife of a USCG officer, the mother of a USCG fireman I am horrified that anyone would miss this significance of this event. Of all things that happen at sea, a fire is the *worst* case scenario. They are LUCKY they are going home, and thats about it.

[Crusin6]

"I know I am not crazy but it does seem like there are allot of major issues with their ships. Didn't know about the Destiny having the problem too. Seems like Carnival is not fixing or checking their ships. I can understand problems with one but it is beginning to be a continous cycle"

 

This is what happens when you buy and build bigger ships without putting in the extra capacity to help run the Electrics etc! only a matter of time before more ships become involved in the same issues.

sort of like the same scenario from the movie The Towering Inferno....cheap wiring put into a massive building.

[M2ice]

Lucky? Are you serious? Maybe they are, but not in the absurd way you've described.

 

THEIR SHIP CAUGHT ON FIRE!

 

Have you any idea how easily something like that can become a major disaster? They tell you how dangerous fire is aboard a ship during their own muster drills. Apparently we have more to fear from shoddy maintenance than from errant cigarettes.

 

Thankfully the fire suppression system wasn't as faulty as the engines! This is the second such fire in less than three years. How many other cruise lines have had two engine room fires in that period of time? I can't think of any. Something is very wrong with CCL's maintenance program. All the cost cutting in the passenger areas is probably even worse down below.

 

I swear, if the bloody ship would have sank some folks around here would be posting about how much they've always wanted to ride in a lifeboat!

 

 

It is amazing how many people don't realize how dangerous this whole situation was.

[luv2cruiserccl]

So do we have any more updates on this?

 

Sent from my BlackBerry using Tapatalk please excuse typographical errors

[mondello]

So do we have any more updates on this?

 

Sent from my BlackBerry using Tapatalk please excuse typographical errors

Latest I've seen was on TV this morning: they're awaiting a second tug and will slowly be towed back to Mobile, Alabama with a Thursday arrival.

[stewpapa]

Very well written, thankfully this happened in calm seas at a cool time of year. It would be even worse in summer and could be huge diaster during strom season. Anyone who takes this lightly has no idea of the potential problems when the ship is dead in the water.

 

Good Point! What if a hurricane was out there? This ship would roll.

[skyeman27]

Wow! I guess this OP was spot on with this call to dock this ship. He posted this 2 days prior to breakdown. I fI was booked on the Triumph I would cancel and not book til total 2.0 refurb.

 

Some Carnival huggers would say "lucky guess"...

[zeddy777]

Exactly. Carnival knew about the propulsion issues, gambled on the condition of the ship holding out, and lost in a big way. Now they're going to have to shell out a lot of extra money and suffer the bad publicity because they lost their bet. Their motives are hardly altruistic... they're doing what they have to do.

 

I'm sure 5 CCL Cheerleaders will respond with all sorts of nonsense along the lines of "They didn't have to excuse their Sail & Sign balances! They didn't have to give them a free cruise!" Well consider what would have happened if they did none of that... Imagine how much worse the press would be. It's called damage control, not altruism.

 

Correct. Time is money, and the people on board probably don't care much about a free cruise right now. Carnival should send an empty ship out and get these people off that ship now.

[Jimmy Geegitz]

Yea the stabilizers are not working so the ship could roll. I wouldn't book this ship.

[dwjoe]

CNN got wind of the prior propulsion issues and CCL put out a statement about it.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/12/travel/cruise-ship-fire/index.html

NEW: The cruise ship recently suffered propulsion and alternator problems

 

The fire is at least the second problem for the ship since late January, when it had a problem with its propulsion system, according to a notice posted to Carnival Senior Cruise Director John Heald's website.

 

The company also recently repaired one of Triumph's alternators, the company said Tuesday.

 

However, there's no evidence the alternator problem and the fire are linked, cruise line spokesman Vance Gulliksen said Tuesday.

[mafig]

Correct. Time is money, and the people on board probably don't care much about a free cruise right now. Carnival should send an empty ship out and get these people off that ship now.

 

Empty ship? They don't have "empty ships" just sitting around.

[zeddy777]

Empty ship? They don't have "empty ships" just sitting around.

 

In the case of an emergency like this, they could stop one group from boarding and send an empty ship to pick them up. That's not that hard. Why should those good people be stuck out there moving at 5 mph. If a North wind moves in, they'll be moving backwards. We got to Progresso just after a 'Norther' came thru (Jan 28 Triumph).

[Dave85]

I swear, if the bloody ship would have sank some folks around here would be posting about how much they've always wanted to ride in a lifeboat!

 

LOL, love it. We all know it's completely true, too.

[mafig]

In the case of an emergency like this, they could stop one group from boarding and send an empty ship to pick them up. That's not that hard. Why should those good people be stuck out there moving at 5 mph. If a North wind moves in, they'll be moving backwards. We got to Progresso just after a 'Norther' came thru (Jan 28 Triumph).

 

 

It is hard. How do they get the passengers from one ship to the other?

 

Lifeboats? Didn't they just have an accident with a lifeboat this weekend where people died? And that was in calm water, not the middle of the ocean, with a ship that had power and wasn't listing and bobbing around.

 

What about the old? Very dangerous!

[Breezy72]

In the case of an emergency like this, they could stop one group from boarding and send an empty ship to pick them up. That's not that hard. Why should those good people be stuck out there moving at 5 mph. If a North wind moves in, they'll be moving backwards. We got to Progresso just after a 'Norther' came thru (Jan 28 Triumph).

 

Seriously??? So, instead of 2000+ dissatisfied customers, lets shoot for 5000+ dissatisfied customers? Wow, the company will be bankrupt before summer hits! Novel idea to send "an empty ship"? (ha ha.. that's funny!) And too, how are they going to get all those passengers from one ship to the other??? That's just a huge lawsuit waiting to happen. Let's think these things through people. Think with a brain, not emotion.

[MsMot]

You're not referring to that paltry $40m bonus in December are you?

 

Ahhh it was $90MM.

[BringMeThatHorizon]

Last week we sailed the Triumph and were very disapointed. For over half the cruise the motor couldn't run at full power so we missed Cozumel totally. The room lights were falling and the hallway outside our door smelled like sewage several times. This ship should be docked now. If you're booked on this ship, I'd op for another Carnival ship. This was our 4th Carnival trip. The other three were good ships.

 

Thanks to OP for posting your experience and honest opinion.

 

People get upset with facts that they don't want to believe and/or say problems are temporary and will be fixed, even though they have no way of knowing if that's true. For every bad review on these boards, there are people who reply to contradict something that they didn't experience. I'm new to these boards, but it seems like they are referred to as 'cheerleaders'.

 

Some of the original replies to the OP are amusing to read through:

 

"I don't know that warning people to stay off the ship indefinitely is really appropriate when the issue can and will be rectified."

 

"... experienced none of the issues the OP rants about. It's amazing to me how a mechanical issue can cause such a difference in opinion between passengers regarding non-mechanical issues."

 

"The OP says to stay away from the Triumph, because of her (temporary) propulsion problems.... it'd be like saying don't fly next month because my flight this week was delayed by weather."

 

 

 

For future event prediction/advice, I plan to consult this list:

 

1. Zeddy777

2. Nostradamus

3. Back to the Future II

4. Mayans

[a1173]

According to wikipedia the Triumph has 6 diesel generators (4 twelve cylinder and 2 eight cylinder- this gives flexibility to meet various loads such as cruising and while docked). They are divided into two separate engine rooms. All these engines do is generate electricity, the main propeller shafts are connected to large electric propulsion motors (or external azipods on other ships). With six generators you can have some offline for repair and still function, thought at perhaps reduced speed. This is why some ships limit itineraries. So a modern cruise ship is essentially a mobile power plant.

 

It's clear from Splendor, Triumph and others that the engine room fire suppression systems do their job. I've read that there can be multiple layers to these systems including mist, halon-type agents, even CO2 flood. That's very reassuring.

 

What doesn't seem to be working well on at least Splendor and Triumph is the redundant design that is supposed to permit one engine room to still supply power to the ship even if the other has had a major event such as a fire. This is one reason why you build two engine rooms.

 

I would think Carnival and other lines are very interested in this failure mode (and eliminating it in future ships) because the consequences are so costly. And Carnival especially since they seem to be conservative with regard to design- they have avoided azipods because of their early teething problems. I wonder if the NTSB will study why redundancy was lost?

[cruiseclues]

There was nothing wrong with the OP's message. We should be open to all messages negative, or positive, and evaluate them ourselves, but not discourage anyone from posting, and avoid personal attacks. More information is our friend for the continuing good performance of the cruise lines. We're sure the cruise lines want to do their best...and we can help them toward that ongoing goal. :)

 

We definitely don't know enough about the details of the reason for failure, how much human error was involved, how much of it was the equipment, procedures, etc to make assumptions, though conjecture is fine, as long as it is identified as such, and not extended as blame or punishment...that said I'm sure it will continue. Post what you want. We'll all continue to try to sort it out. :)

 

Usually, with this level of problem, the cruise lines move forward to better methods, procedures, and possibly more equipment, which is a very good thing...This was very costly for Carnival, in the money they have promised the cruisers, the accommodations, hotels, transportation, etc, the actual repairs, and changes they may need to make, and the publicity which may be the worst of all on their pocketbook. We're sure that Carnival does not want this to happen again.

 

In general, we still feel secure on cruise ships and are very much looking forward to our 2 Carnival cruises this month.

[cruzemaven]

Last week we sailed the Triumph and were very disapointed. For over half the cruise the motor couldn't run at full power so we missed Cozumel totally. The room lights were falling and the hallway outside our door smelled like sewage several times. This ship should be docked now. If you're booked on this ship, I'd op for another Carnival ship. This was our 4th Carnival trip. The other three were good ships.

 

Wow, your cruise was positively heavenly compared to this week's cruise...you were lucky!!

[zeddy777]

Wow, your cruise was positively heavenly compared to this week's cruise...you were lucky!!

 

True. We are blessed to be off that boat. After all this posting, my finding is this boat REALLY needed to be off the water some time ago. Reports going back to mid dec and maybe before regarding propulsion problems.

 

Hopefully in the future Carnival will never send out a broken boat. If they're having propulsion problems, redflag the boat. It stays home.

 

But I doubt anything will change. The president has 90 million reasons to stay status quo.

[familytraveler01106]

However, there's no evidence the alternator problem and the fire are linked, cruise line spokesman Vance Gulliksen said Tuesday.

 

What else would they say? "We are guilty of negligence. Please sue us."?

[BirdOPrey5]

Props to the OP for trying to bring this to the attention of potential victims while they still had a chance to avoid it.

 

I've only been on 1 cruise but I can say Carnival's total disregard for passenger comfort and safety by letting this ship sail even with obvious mechanical issues has removed them from any future possibility I would choose them for my next cruise.

[a1173]

According to wikipedia the Triumph has 6 diesel generators (4 twelve cylinder and 2 eight cylinder- this gives flexibility to meet various loads such as cruising and while docked). They are divided into two separate engine rooms. All these engines do is generate electricity, the main propeller shafts are connected to large electric propulsion motors (or external azipods on other ships). With six generators you can have some offline for repair and still function, thought at perhaps reduced speed. This is why some ships limit itineraries. So a modern cruise ship is essentially a mobile power plant.

 

It's clear from Splendor, Triumph and others that the engine room fire suppression systems do their job. I've read that there can be multiple layers to these systems including mist, halon-type agents, even CO2 flood. That's very reassuring.

 

What doesn't seem to be working well on at least Splendor and Triumph is the redundant design that is supposed to permit one engine room to still supply power to the ship even if the other has had a major event such as a fire. This is one reason why you build two engine rooms.

 

I would think Carnival and other lines are very interested in this failure mode (and eliminating it in future ships) because the consequences are so costly. And Carnival especially since they seem to be conservative with regard to design- they have avoided azipods because of their early teething problems. I wonder if the NTSB will study why redundancy was lost?

 

 

After reading some more it seems the Splendor's CO2 suppression system had some glitches.

 

Also ships built after July 2010 must adhere to "safe return to port" design requirements that supposedly increase redundancy.

 

The report on why Splendor lost redundancy has yet to be released.

[RuthlessBoss]

Props to the OP for trying to bring this to the attention of potential victims while they still had a chance to avoid it.

 

I've only been on 1 cruise but I can say Carnival's total disregard for passenger comfort and safety by letting this ship sail even with obvious mechanical issues has removed them from any future possibility I would choose them for my next cruise.

Please see the latest posts of what they have found .